Almost got another finish in under the wire

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I ordered a pile of stuff from Fat Quarter Shop on Black Friday. My grubby hands finally got a bunch of Jaybird Quilt patterns, including Glimmer.

I used the Pillow option to make a small table topper in some remaining Jingle All The Way Christmas fabric.

And then last night I squeezed out some time to do this:
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It was pretty fast, maybe 40 minutes? And I had to change bobbins twice, mostly because I was using up half empty ones. I did a different design in each color section.

Now all I need to do is bind this in the matching red print and it’s done. First finish of 2015!

Finishes for the year

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And now the wrap up for the finishes of the year:

Finished quilts –
29, including 16 runners or minis.
northern lights rainbow mini quilt
2 rock candy toppers
1 heart topper
floral sampler quilt
the bee quilt
scrapper’s delight
mariner’s compas
30’s jitterbug
2 sticks and stones toppers
starry runner
diamonds runner
mini bunny quilt
grey tula pink
big log cabin for kids
fast forward brown quilt
2 baby blankies & 2 quilted small ones (Noah’s ark panels)
pink.aqua & green girl’s quilt
scrappy green yellow brick road
biege feathered quilt
christmas cross
pine tree table runner
wp tshirt quilt
rainbow stripes quilt
navy and white snowman quilt
mini charm pack sewing machine cover
ink bottle mini quilt

not including panels & quilts for mom (9, quilting only)
rainbow strings
julia’s quilt
pink baby quilt
scrappy squares
2 Christmas small quilts
fall wall hanging
sunbonnet sam panel
Christmas panel

Other sewing I finished – FORTY ITEMS
40’s green dress
headbands for girls , wine bottle cover
blue knit dress I haven’t worn which is now too big
2 draped cardigans
baby sleep sacks
knit kids undies, not sure how many pairs
a WP bow tie
ipad stand
amy butler purse & wallet
2 kid’s ties
blue;s clues dress
3 orange ruffled dresses
4 swimsuits
3 more shoulder tie dresses
mommy & two daughter smocked pull on dresses from remnant
red polar fleece coat for fall
happy birthday bunting
thread catcher
2 change purses
smaller wallet
lanyards
downton abbey purse and wallet
elas, Anna and Olaf costumes
Knight hoodie

Quilts in progress
16 in planning stages, not cut
12 in various stages & ages

I expect a lot of finished over the next couple months, since I’m trying to finish long standing projects I got bored of before I head on to yet another project.Any new projects I’m trying to limit to commissions (a.k.a someone paid me to make it).

I was going to try and link to each one, but that is a HUGE list. I had no idea.

Year of Making

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So this week I bought Kim Werker’s ebook, the Year of Making. It wasn’t completely impulsive. I try and do something creative every day. I usually fail and it bunches up, with nothing Mon-Wed and a complete immersion for Fri-Sat.

For optimal happiness and sanity I really need to do something every single day. So I got the ebook, because it advertised worksheets and I really need something to help organize my thoughts. So. Many. Thoughts. And the ideas… they just keep coming.

I’ve started already, not waiting for the new year, and am up to day… 5? I think? I realized the 2-3 days before I purchased the ebook, I also did something creative each day but I didn’t “cheat” and write them down and backdate.

The other thing, not entirely a resolution, is I really need to get back to blogging more. I have too many sites. Sometimes I want to write something and get stopped simply because I’m not sure which blog to use for it. To that end, expect more non-quilting talk here. It should still be quilt / sewing craft related though. Another reason I need to do this more is because I was thinking about the lists of finishes of the year and pretty sure I can’t remember ALL the things I made that were not quilts. I might have taken pictures but haven’t posted anything anywhere.

I need to do this more for me, not for reading audiences, simply because my memory is that bad. It’s just good for me to catalogue these things. And it’s not just doing something creative / artsy / crafty just for the sake of doing something. I have actual skills I want to expand.

The challenging bit is, figuring out what those are, what I want to improve on, what things my fuzzy memory said at one time “Ooo that’d be cool to try!”. I’m not a new crafter myself, and I had a (small, tiny) retail craft store (in my home and fledgling online) in the mid to late 90’s. I also taught classes, so there’s a HECK of a lot of basic common crafting topics and things and skills that I’ve already tried. (I actually wrote down glass making and blacksmithing for things I’d like to try.)

But what I have found, because of my impatience, I dive right in and skip some details of things I’ve tried previously. I have some skills, but some are… to be frank.. sloppy. And this also leads me to over-thinking about perfectionism and that very fine teetering knife edge of being a perfectionist versus refining existing skills so you are better.

WHEW.

See? It’s all Kim’s fault for making me think this deep. 😀

Welcome Blogathon visitors!

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Hi! I’m Andrea! Feel free to poke around, leave comments, have a party.

I live in fredericton NB and just bought a house in Keswick, so if you are in either area and a quilter, PLEASE leave a link to your blog so I can stalk you.. er, I mean so we can be new quilting Best Friends!

I really love modern quilting so if there’s anything in the area for that, I’d love to know!

There’s 3 quilt guilds around here I have yet to visit, but that is on my list for the new year. If you see me there, I’ll be the one with the colorful hair. Usually it’s pink, right now it’s purple. At least, so far this week!

For more on me and creativity, I recently did an interview with a long time online friend, so go visit her podcast here Episode 6 : Me Being Crafty

Also stop by the Christmas Crab quiltery – our local quilt store. I do tech support for them, if you’ve seen me around. Yep, that’s me!

Oversize log cabin

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I made this oversize single log cabin block quilt way back in May of 2012.

boy log cabin

I just pulled pieces of kid prints from my stash and went to town, building up a block until it was a decent size. I did very little cutting of fabric.

This summer, I finally got around to quilting it. I backed it in a cheery dinosaur print and did an allover stipple. It was fast. Then I bound it in this great lime green solid.

You can buy this quilt in my Etsy shop too.

Two Runners

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I finished two table runners this summer, as well. Both use fabrics from the same christmas line – Jingle All the Way and some Bernartex basics that co-ordinated.

Both runners were from the same pattern, Little Charmers 2. I love her patterns, I want them all.

I separated the dark greens, blues and the yellows for the starry runner. In the background I quilted spirals and in the stars I did straight line, somewhat dot to dot quilting.

For the blocks runner, I used the reds, lighter greens and beiges to build up the design. I messed up the color placement but anyone I showed it to couldn’t tell the difference. I quilted a leafy design following the blocks. Since it is both Christmassy and summery I called it Christmas in Australia.

Both of these runners are available in my Etsy shop.

Rainbow Northern Lights mini

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I used the Hex n More ruler and the Northern Lights pattern to make a rainbow wall hanging. I followed the pattern but used the smallest size on the ruler.

It took a while because of the small pieces and I kept putting it down to work on other things. But, once the top was completely done, I did straight line quilting to match the zig zag effect, bound it in black and sent it off as a gift.

I sent it to the head office of the company I work for, so they had more bright art on the walls. They loved it!

I will probably make this again.

As always, click images for bigger.

Quilting the Jitterbug Quilt

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Ages ago (March 2011) I started the Jitterbug quilt that is on the cover of Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts. I even bought 1930’s reproduction prints off eBay. Got a deal on those, still using some of them up.

I had piecing issues and pressing issues with this quilt. I know it’s my technique, not the pattern and I’ve learned a bunch since then even. Like maybe not do 2.5″ HSTs. At least not without tons of starch.

The top was done for quite a while and was stuck with the rest waiting for batting. I finally basted it this summer. The only other issue I had was what to quilt. The pieces really were too small to do much custom fancy quilting, so I just stitched in the ditch.

At least it worked. Even if the entire process of this quilt was frustrating.

I bound the edges in scraps of the 30’s prints as well. The backing is just plain white. It’s a good old fashioned quilt and I probably should label it. Ron likes it and we keep it on the spare bed.

The Mariner’s Compass quilt

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I got super inspired for this quilt basically when I saw the starry fabric. I dug out navy and yellow scraps and made some borders for the large piece of starry fabric, then used mostly yellows with a strips of blues for the back. So the front could be night and the back day. When I started this back in 2009 (!) I actually called it Night and Day.

I knew I wanted a large focal point that was quilted much like a wholecloth quilt is. I then decided it would be a mariner’s compass design. I looked up a bunch of tutorials on how to draw this mariner’s compass, including making a compass from a pencil and a piece of string. I used chalk to draw the lines on my quilt.

For the straight lines, I used a walking foot and navy thread. This also helped stabilize the quilt. To form the dark and light effect, I quilted with yellow thread on one side of each point and navy on the opposite side. The quilting technique I used is called McTavishing. Love it! I got pretty good at it by the end.

For the background of the compass in the sky, I did a regular stipple, in navy thread. I wanted the central focal point to stand out and the background to fade away.

In the narrow yellow border, I did a rope design – much like a ship would have. The wider blue border I had no ideas for so I’ve left them empty. I can always go back and fill them in. The binding is more scraps of blue and yellow.

You see, I did this quilt for two reasons: my grandfather and my granddaughter. My grandfather was a ship builder. Our home town is by the sea and the ocean is in our blood. On a clear night, I will look up to the sky and find Orion to orient myself.

My granddaughter love space. She insists I help her look up space videos on youTube and find out what the Mars Rover is doing. She talks about spaceships and maybe when she’s bigger she can go to space and visit other planets. In her lifetime this may be possible.

So – from ships on the sea to space ships in the sky, the stars will guide them home.

This quilt is just for me – not for sale, not for any reason but to pay homage to the travellers in our family and the stars in the sky.

I’m on a roll!

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Not only am I on a roll with posting but with finishing up all the pending quilt projects. I’m been a great starter – tons of idea, loads of fabric to play with – and a terrible finisher.

One reason is I’ll stall on a project because I ran out of materials. This really hit home when I looked at the pile of quilt tops waiting. Last year I even went through and chose backing fabrics. Then recently I realized I had so many tops, it would use an enormous amount of batting to finish them off.

So I waited for a batting sale to come up.

While I waiting, it dawned on me that batting comes on a roll as well. Our local fabric chain carries it (not my LQS) and the price? $25-30 a METER. That’s… not good. Especially since I’m increasingly unhappy with batting in bags. It just gets so wrinkled and pulled out of shape and I wind up with a lot of scraps.

I cleaned out my batting scraps as well and tossed a bag full of nothing but stringy bits only good for tote bag handles. I’d have to make 50 totes to use those up so out they went. I will piece some batting, but I don’t like to have more than a couple seams of batting in a quilt.

Eventually I researched buying a whole roll of batting. The husband had enough of my fretting about it and he said “order some already!”.

Just before ordering I went through my entire stash of pending quilts and realized I would use up an ENTIRE ROLL right away.

So hubby said order two rolls.

And I did.

Guys! I ordered some batting. 60 yards of it. O.o

They were here within a week and I was SUPER HAPPY. That’s 60 total yards.

A few days ago, we cracked open the roll and basted two quilts in an hour, together.

I’m much happier with the roll – not only with the minimal folds and wrinkling in it, but it is also a 50/50 blend in a poplar brand that I hadn’t used before. It;s true – it really is the best of both worlds (cotton and poly).

Can’t wait to actually quilt on it now! I have two more basted quilts to go before I start on the ones we basted with this batting.

Then it’s maybe a dozen more quilt tops waiting. Why yes, I AM asking myself what the heck I was thinking…